Behind the Design: The TEDxUbud Badges

Badges hold a special place in the design heart of our Co-founder and Creative Director, Daniela Burr. She says it's a perfect way of making an attendee feel special from the moment they step in through the door. This year the search for the perfect TEDxUbud badge began with the idea of laser-cut. 

In a nod to traditional Balinese shadow puppets and our venue, The House of Masks and Puppets, we created a badge that attendees could play with using a light source and project their names onto other surfaces once night fell. 

Designing for laser-cutting (handled by the wonderful team at 9Box) brought its own set of challenges. The only font suitable was a stencil font. We settled on Rufina. Rufina was created from dark-text on light-background combinations, making it sharper and arguably better for quick viewing in such a dark environment. Most of its letter strokes are separated on the hairline, which allows the same kind of “invisible” readability, and is sort of a pattern among well-designed stencils.

The lanyards were gorgeous strips of handmade batik silk using leftover fabric from the masterminds behind Quarzia. We threaded the silk through two holes for added stability and to stop the badges from flipping over. 

The big and very visible name badges are an important part of any TEDx event—they help people to get to know fellow attendees and build a sense of community.